Speckled Wood
It's great when the sun comes out. And along with comes the butterflies. We don't have a large variety visiting the garden, but one that does visit relatively regularly is the Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria. Unusually for British butterflies it can over winter as both a larva and pupa (1). During the 19th century the Speckled Wood suffered quite a contraction in its range, but since the 1920's it ha made a recovery. This has continued since the 1980s and may be due to climate change allowing it to spread further north (1). The trend for the Speckled Wood shows a highly significant and generally steady increase, as can be seen from the graph below produced by the UK butterfly Monitoring Scheme (3). The butterfly has a divided distribution in Britain (it occurs throughout Ireland) and it has continued to colonise new areas in both parts of its range during the monitoring period (3). It has a flight season from April through to October, and is often found...